Nabisco's Adolphus Green Made Cookies Profitable

He was the driving force in creating the company and transforming it into a modern enterprise and one of the nation's largest employers.

In organizing and running the packaged-food giant — then called National Biscuit Co. — Green ushered in an era of national brands, coast-to-coast marketing, innovative packaging and other now-commonplace business practices.

Green rose from Boston and Harvard to form National Biscuit Co. in 1898. IBD/Mary Ann Edwards View Enlarged Image

"He recognized that it was a watershed time for the industry," said Becky Tousey, an archivist at Mondelez International (MDLZ), the company that makes Newtons, Oreos and other top Nabisco products and had 2011 sales of $54 billion. Kraft Foods renamed itself Mondelez this year and spun off its grocery business into a separate firm called Kraft Foods Group (KRFT).

"So many things were changing in terms of transportation, distribution, automation and all of that," she told IBD. "Looking back on it now, he really was one of those transformational leaders."

The Boss of the Biscuit Bakers, as one writer called him, stressed that hard work drove results. He once told a reporter that successful people "must love to struggle" and "must love the game of life."

Tough Start

Green (1843-1917) had no unfair advantage as he started the game of life. Born in Boston, he was the youngest of 11 children. His father was an Irish immigrant who worked as a boot maker and died while Adolphus was still young.

Green's Keys

Went from being a teacher, librarian and lawyer to becoming the Boss of the Biscuit Bakers, helping transform the packaged-food industry.

Overcame: Humble beginning, being an outsider in the baking business.

Lesson: To be successful, you must love to struggle and love the game of life.

"I have been told that there is no poetry or romance in business, but since I left the practice of the law to undertake this work, I have found enough inspiration in it to rival that which moved the crusaders of old."

Green's mother ran a boarding house to support the family after her husband's death.

She placed great emphasis on education, according to William Cahn in his book "Out of the Cracker Barrel: The Nabisco Story, From Animal Crackers to ZuZus."

That classroom push helps explain how Green managed to graduate from the highly regarded Boston Latin School as well as Harvard, the latter in 1863.

After college, Green worked as a teacher and school administrator in Massachusetts for one year.

He then moved to New York City and joined the Mercantile Library Association, which aimed to help clerks with their education.

Green kept striving. He secured the position of chief clerk with a New York law firm and after four years passed the bar exam.

Then it was off to Chicago in the early 1870s to set up a law practice.

He became a well-regarded attorney in the Windy City into the 1880s, serving for a time as a lawyer for the Chicago Board of Trade.

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